*runs up, hits a buzzer* WRITERS BLOCK! Gah, only two more chapters, people!

"Excuse me?" James gulped. McCarthy nodded enthusiastically (he hadn't gotten much experience in these matters before, gynaecology being out of his area of expertise. After a second of no response, and intense atmosphere in the air, he cleared his throat.

"I take it the pregnancy is wanted?" he said hopefully He could almost hear the click as the fact that his wife was pregnant registered properly in James's brain.

"Y-yes, of course it is. excuse me, I've got to go." Usually full of fun, James's voice was horribly flat and emotionless. McCarthy cast a glance at the nurse, who had been eavesdropping and pretending to be filing.

Three people half way down the corridor were still holding their breath. Sirius was the first to let go, and slump to the floor. Arabella followed. With shaking hands, Sirius clambered to get up, but found he couldn't. Arabella held him steady until he re-gained a strand of co-ordination.

"Wow. just wow. Under normal circumstances I'd say 'Wahey Jamsie!' but."

"We know," Remus and Arabella murmured dismally. Clearly, all three of them were in different places. Sirius was puzzling over the reason that James could be so. well. cold. Remus was more in the region of why Lily seemed purely terrified in the presence of someone she'd known and loved for quite a long time, and Arabella was thinking of the child, and what on earth would happen to it .

"I'm finding out what this is about," Sirius said firmly. He looked almost angry, quite unusually for auror. Remus shook his head warningly.

"Lily's resting, Sirius, she can't have -" he started. Sirius gave him a withering look.

"I never said anything about Lily," he muttered coldly. Before either Arabella and Remus could stop him he was off. Arabella looked pleadingly after him, hoping he could find out what was wrong with their best friends.

""What do you mean, you quit?" Lucius Malfoy's cold stare met James's determined one. James's fists were actually clenched inside his pockets, as were his teeth. He wasn't going to stand for blackmail and trickery one second longer. He couldn't stand it any longer. He couldn't bear the look of betrayal that he'd never seen before today on Lily's face.

"Here's a little language lesson for you. Malfoy. When people who are speaking English say 'I quit,' it usually means that they are leaving a job or giving up a task before they have finished. When I say 'I quit,' I mean that I wish to stop taking orders from you and your master. It means, basically, that I never want to have anything to do with you again!" he suppressed a smile at the look on Malfoy's face. Priceless. He almost wished Sirius were here to see it.

"Is that so? You'd sacrifice not only your wife's life, but your own? I took you for a fool, but never a selfish one," James winced at this comment. He had to stand firm. After all, this was the threat that had made him join in the first place. He cared nothing or his own life, that was easily bargained, but Lily's was a totally different matter. Still, he had to stand firm. After all, he could defend her - even if she did hate him!

"Potter, you know too much by now to just leave. You'' have to be disposed o. Still feel like leaving?" Lucius was smiling an unsettling cruel smile. Empty threat, James told himself steadily. He doesn't mean it.

James offered a mysterious smile before he could say another word there was a flash of blue light, and he found that he was now lying next to the wall with an intense headache His glasses had been knocked to one side, and though he squinted he could just see Lucius's blurry outline against the window. His head was swimming, and he could taste bitter blood in his mouth.

"You chose the loosing side, Potter! ." James could hear him saying. He clenched his fists and got up, wand in hand.

"That's where you're wrong. I never chose it. I was always with it and I never left it," he raised his wand, swallowing the bitterness in his mouth. He could see a flash of blue again, and once more he was thrown against the wall. The pounding in his head grew, and in the background he could hear someone shouting 'crucio,' as a searing pain filled every inch of his body. He bit his lip, willing himself not to cry out From the pain. All he could see in his minds eye was that look of betrayal, and it somehow gave him strength. He flexed his hands and, in an extra jolt o white hot pain, found the floor. He tried to pull himself up again, and gasped as he heard the start of the last curse he was sure he'd ever hear :

"Avada -"

(The chapter will end in 5.4.3.2.1)